The AK Project – CD status

Hello all,

There have been many questions on ‘what’s happening with the CD’ so I thought I’d answer it here. (for those on twitter and facebook, the updates have been posted there too).

So this whole idea started a few years back in wanting to combine various ‘progressive musical ideas’ together in to something that was new. I set out to create this music. Inspired by Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd, Rush, King Crimson and other prog giants- as well as heavier rock bands, we endeavored to create something we found special to us.

Those of you that write, or are in bands, know this process cannot be rushed as it needs time for things to gel – some of the tunes I wrote simply wrote themselves and others encouraged me and the band to push harder and further musically – challenging ourselves at all times. The band and the folk I work with in the ‘music biz’, know I am absolutely relentless in my pursuit of the best music and musicians and that I write constantly – I am always looking for musical challenge, whether it is odd meter, poly-rhythms, time changes, technical execution or new ideas to push the band, I am always pushing forward… the players I have worked with/work with have groaned on a few occasions saying ‘ah man, not another telephone number’ that means time signatures that change fast and often! Joking aside, the goal of The AK Project musically is not to be clever for the sake of being clever but to truly push beyond the comfort levels of simple obvious ‘pop’ or ‘musical empty calorie’ arrangements.

Many of you know the band also performs as Comfortably Numb and with a tour this past February and rehearsals in January, there was a lot on the plate which slowed the CD process – writing was still continuous but the focus shifted to concentrate on the numb shows and not to start inadvertently writing Floyd inspired tunes.

The AK Project as a group have pushed hard and we work daily at this – we have finally reached a point where we have capped our writing to concentrate on the CD only and what songs are going on it. We had a meeting and 19 songs made it to the cut, given that only 80 minutes can be on a CD we had to cut some further. We now feel we have a great mix of tunes and are working to perfect those tunes for recording. I know people are saying ‘hurry up already’ and I understand the desire to hear the music – but we have to do things in natural order and in the time it takes. We are ‘gelling’ parts, music and vocal and for those pieces that have poly-rhythms and extreme changes we are running them until they are in our sleep.

I believe the CD has a good balance of ‘song and structure’ and it has a blend of the stuff that makes ‘prog – prog’ and the stuff that makes it a song. Having said that, the CD will be out soon and I mean soon. We won’t put out something we are not proud of regardless of pressure because in the end we will have to be happy with it for us to make our fans happy.

Thank you to all those that follow so closely on facebook and twitter we really appreciate you and will show our gratitude in some CD giveaways, especially to those that always follow all our blogs and messages.